


Fear and Comfort

by beargirl1393



Series: Dworin Week 2k16 [6]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Arachnophobia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Battle of Five Armies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:03:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7566460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beargirl1393/pseuds/beargirl1393
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is ridiculous and Dwalin knows it. Fortunately, Thorin is there to make him feel better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear and Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> This is another fic for Dworin Week, today's prompt was Hurt/Comfort. It's posted a bit later than usual because I had to work early today.

It was ridiculous. He knew it was ridiculous. He had gone into battle as little more than a child, faced orcs, wargs, trolls, and even a dragon. Been in battles with odds so bleak that he thought that he would never see the dawn. He had been imprisoned, ambushed, tortured…more had happened to him just as a child than most adults could claim to have dealt with, let alone what had happened in his adult life. He was one of the strongest dwarves in Erebor, the strongest if one discounted Dori. It was ridiculous to be this frightened after all he had seen.

The spider in their bedchamber was laughing at him, Dwalin knew it.

He couldn’t help himself. Ever since they had been ambushed by those large spiders…taken in broad daylight, paralyzed and left for a snack. There had been nothing he could do, if the hobbit had not intervened when he did, they would all have died.

Death did not frighten Dwalin, it hadn’t for decades, and yet just a glimpse of the small, relatively harmless eight-legged creature on the wall in their bedchamber was enough to have him fleeing the room. It nearly had him fleeing their chambers entirely, but he fought the urge, settling in the kitchen with his pipe instead and promising that he would go and deal with the spider soon.

When Thorin returned to their chambers an hour later, exhausted after a long day of meetings and expecting his partner to already be sleeping, Dwalin was still in the kitchen, on his third pipe and mentally promising himself that this would be the last before he dealt with the spider.

It didn’t take Thorin long to find Dwalin, and he settled into the chair opposite Dwalin to wait for his partner to talk. He knew something had to be wrong, as Dwalin tended to prefer a quick bath before going to bed at the end of a day spent training recruits, and only deviated from that pattern when it was necessary, or when something upset him.

“It’s the bloody spider,” Dwalin muttered. Thorin wouldn’t give up, Dwalin knew, and would be fully prepared to sit with him for as long as it took before he explained himself. “There is a spider on the wall in our bedchamber, and I can’t stand the sight of the thing.”

Thorin absorbed that information, nodding slowly after a moment. “After what we endured on the quest-” he started, but didn’t get farther than that before Dwalin interrupted him.

“I have been through much worse, Thorin, and so have you,” Dwalin said, his voice harsh with self-recrimination. “And yet one small spider is enough to terrify me where orcs and wargs do not. It is pathetic.”

“No, it is not pathetic,” Thorin said, his voice low. He reached out to put his hand on Dwalin’s, the only contact that his partner would allow at the moment. “What did you say to me, after the battle?”

“That isn’t the same-” Dwalin started, but Thorin cut him off.

“Yes, it is.” Blue eyes bore steadily into grey as Thorin caught and held Dwalin’s gaze. “What did you say to me, as I lay on what was nearly my deathbed and feared even touching the crown that Balin had unearthed from the treasury?”

“I told you that it was acceptable to fear the responsibility of ruling after everything that had happened to you, and that you would need time to prove to yourself that you could handle the responsibility and would not become gold mad again.”

“And that is what I am telling you now,” Thorin replied. “After near death by spiders, it is natural to fear them, even if the one in our bedchambers is smaller than the ones who attempted to devour us. You need time, Dwalin, to process what has happened and to accept it. You did not overcome your fear of wargs overnight, you simply put the fear aside until after the battle and dealt with the fear during the times of peace.”

“And as we went from danger to danger on the quest, there was no time to acknowledge my fear then,” Dwalin said, comprehension brightening his eyes slightly. “Now it is coming to the fore, as we are at peace.”

“Precisely,” Thorin said, smiling faintly as Dwalin seemed moderately more relaxed. The other dwarf was rather hard to shake up, and he tended to find his equilibrium quickly after a small upset. “You have time to acknowledge your fear now, where you did not have the luxury on our quest as we were falling from one danger to another, with occasional periods of safety. Now, we are at peace, rebuilding is proceeding apace, and you have time to work through your fear.

Dwalin nodded, turning over the matter in his mind. Neither he nor Thorin were the type to talk about their feelings easily, but this was something that had been building for weeks. Thorin had ignored the first time Dwalin showed hints of panic around spiders, and the second time, but Dwalin had known that he wouldn’t be able to avoid the conversation forever.

He hadn’t wanted to, truthfully, but that was something he had difficulty admitting to himself, let alone to Thorin. Instead of saying it, he rose and grabbed Thorin in a fierce hug, and when Thorin returned it, Dwalin knew that he had been understood.

They rarely needed words to get their point across.

“I’ll take care of the spider tonight, and perhaps we can go speak to Oin tomorrow,” Thorin murmured. “You have gone with me to the healers often enough that I believe it is time for me to return the favor.”

“If I don’t go with you, you’ll never go, even if you’re near death,” Dwalin murmured, face buried in Thorin’s grey-streaked hair. “So of course I go with you to the healer’s.”

Thorin pretended to be offended for a moment, before giving in and laughing along with Dwalin. “I will neither confirm nor deny the truth to your words,” he said grandly, before striding off to the bedroom to kill the spider, Dwalin’s laughter still echoing in the kitchen behind him.


End file.
